Blue Beast Computer Project
January 05, 2011
Computer Maintenance Technology students got the opportunity to build a high-end computing platform this year. The project included many state of the art technologies not typically incorporated in an "off the shelf" product.
Students were able to work with Solid State Drives (SSD) as opposed to Hard Disk Drives (HDD), and then configure the three drives in a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) 5 configuration. This setup allows for fail-safe data protection. In fact, the students were able to see that when one drive fails, the other two can still do the job they were designed to do and then when the bad drive is replaced, the data that it contained can be restored by those other two drives. This results in no data loss.
In addition to SSDs, the Blue Beast contains two high-end video cards which are installed in a Scalable Link Interface (SLI) configuration. This technology allows the two video cards to be combined for increased graphics processing and performance, but only one of the cards' interfaces are used to attach a display. The video output from these cards is extremely vivid and detailed, and in fact, 3D rendering is possible using this technology. The processing power of each card's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is combined to effectively double the productivity of the individual cards. The high definition video that is produced with these cards is very impressive.
Of course, the motherboard, Random Access Memory, (RAM), and Central Processing Unit (CPU) are also top of the line. The Intel Core i7 combined with the 12 Gigabytes of triple channel DDR3, as well as the SSDs, makes most tasks, including installing Windows 7, take a fraction of the time it would take in most systems. It took us approximately 18 minutes to install Windows 7 Professional.
Mainly for the novelty of it, we swapped out the standard heat sink/fan combo that came with the i7 for a liquid cooling unit. This required the help of the Building Trades class for a case mod. The fan needed a bigger opening than the one the case had.
For dramatic effect, we ordered a clear blue case and a power supply that is also partially clear, with blue LEDs in the fan. We also added a blue neon case light.
To see the assembly process, click on the following link:
This project was both fun and educational for the students, (and their instructor). Stop by the CMT classroom any time to see the Blue Beast in action!
